Senior Supreme Court advocate Ranjit Kumar was Saturday appointed the Solicitor General (SG) of India. He replaces senior advocate Mohan Parasaran, who had tendered his resignation last week after the formation of a new government at the Centre.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet had cleared the names of the new SG and six ASGs earlier this week.

The new SG, considered an expert in Constitutional laws, service matters, taxation, local laws pertaining to rent control, has been counsel for the Gujarat government and amicus curiae in several cases in the Supreme Court. Among the cases in which he represented the state government is the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Recently, he appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of the family of a woman at the centre of snooping controversy in which PM Narendra Modi’s name had figured from the time he was Gujarat CM.

On the move to appoint senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi as Attorney General, which has been strongly opposed by eminent lawyer and former Union law minister Ram Jethmalani, the government has decided to take a decision on this issue after considering all options.

Jethmalani in a letter to Modi has opposed Rohatgi’s appointment. “I have asked Modi to not appoint anybody opposed to the move to bring back black money from foreign accounts to any post,” Jethmalani had said Friday.